Census Sunday - Albert H. Sleiser household, 1900 U.S. Census, Livingston Co., KY

The Albert H. Sleiser household was enumerated in the town of Carrsville, Livingston County, Kentucky in 1900^[1]. The census reports that Albert had been married to Ida B. Sleiser for about 1 year. Ida has two children in this family: Ama Washer and Hallie Sleiser. An extract of the census data follows:

Page	263-B (stamped)
Line	66	67	68	69
In Cities: Street Name
In Cities: Street Number
1.Dwelling	18
2.Family	19
3.Name	Sleiser, Albert H.	-------, Ida B.	Washer, Ama	Sleiser, Hallie
4.Relationship of each person to the head of this family	Head	Wife	Step Daughter	Daughter
5.Color or race	W	W	W	W
6.Sex	M	F	F	F
7.Date of Birth - Month	Aug	Feb	Nov	Nov
7.Date of Birth - Year	1850	1861	1882	1899
8.Age at last birthday	49	39	17	6/12
9.Whether single, married, widowed, or divorced	M	M	S	S
10.Number of years married	1	1
11.Mother of how many children		2
12.Number of these children living		2
13.Place of birth of this person	Kentucky	Illinois	Kentucky	Kentucky
14.Place of birth of father of this person	Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania	Alabama	Kentucky
15.Place of birth of mother of this person	Germany	Kentucky	Illinois	Illinois
16.Year of immigration to the United States
17.Number of years in the United States
18.Naturalization
19.Occupation	Miller Flour	Dress maker	At school
20.Months not employed	0	0
21.Attended school (in months)			6
22.Can read	yes	yes	yes
23.Can write	yes	yes	yes
24.Can speak English	yes	yes	yes
25.Ownership of Home: Owned or rented	O
26.Ownership of Home: Owned free or mortgaged	F
27.Ownership of Home: Farm or house	H
28.Ownership of Home: Number of farm schedule

Commentary:

The following evidence suggests that Ida B. Sleiser in this 1900 census is the same person as Ida B. Washer in the 1880 census of Livingston County, Kentucky^[2]:

• Both persons report a birthdate of about 1861 and birthplace of Illinois.
• Both persons report their father's birthplace as Pennsylvania and their mother's birthplace as Kentucky.
• Ida Sleiser is reported to have two daughters, one named Ama Washer, which matches the surname of the spouse of her previous marriage.
• Ama Washer's birthdate is consistent with Ida Washer's marriage date^[3].
• Both persons are living in the same county, either in or near the town of Carrsville.

In the 1880 census in which Ida was enumerated, she was married to William P. Washer and was living near her father in Carrsville Magisterial District No. 5^[2]. At that time, they did not report having any children. If Ida Sleiser is Ida Washer, then the 1900 census leads us to conclude that two years later, in November 1882, a daughter, Ama, was born to William and Ida.

The 1900 census also tells us that Ida married Albert H. Sleiser in 1899. This raises a number of questions regarding her previous marriage to William Washer. Did they divorce? Did William die? What happened to the property that Ida's father bequeathed to them?

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1. 1900 U.S. census, Livingston County, Kentucky, population schedule, Carrsville Voting Precinct No. 1, Carrsville Town, p.263-B (stamped), enumeration district (ED) 57, sheet 1-B, dwelling 18, family 19, Albert H. Sleiser household; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/stream/12thcensusofpopu539unit#page/n362/mode/1up : accessed 2 Nov 2014), image 363; citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 539. ^↩
2. 1880 US. census, Livingston County, Kentucky, population schedule, Carrsville Mag. Dist. #5, enumeration district (ED) 84, p. 375D (stamped), p. 24 (penned), dwelling 208, family 208, W. P. Washer household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 November 2012); citing National Archives micro-film publication T9, roll 429.
[See Census Sunday - W. P. Washer household, 1880 U.S. Census, Livingston Co., KY] ^↩
3. Pope County, Illinois, Marriage Book D: 26, license 994, William P. Washer and Ida B. Sharp, 1876, marriage affidavit, license and certification; County Clerk's Office, Golconda. [See Wedding Wednesday - William Washer and Ida Sharp, 1876 - Part 1] ^↩